This invention relates to the preparation of large mailings and the like. More particularly it relates to systems and apparatus for the preparation of documents and the assembly of multiple mailpieces including such documents.
The term xe2x80x9cmailpiecesxe2x80x9d as used herein means items intended to be delivered by a postal service or private courier service. Typically preparation of mailpieces includes, but is not limited to, printing or otherwise providing documents including variable information pertaining to addressees of the mailpieces and the assembly of such documents with other elements of the mailpiece. The term xe2x80x9cassemblyxe2x80x9d as used herein means the execution of actions to incorporate the documents into mailpieces. Typically, such actions can include: accumulating documents with other materials such as preprinted inserts, folding and inserting the resulting accumulations into envelopes, printing addresses and other information on the outside of the envelopes, and franking the mailpiece with an appropriate postage amount.
Inserter systems for the assembly of mailpieces are well known. A typical inserter system is shown in FIG. 1. Inserter system 10 includes burster/feeder 12 which inputs preprinted documents in fanfold form, separates the documents and removes and discards sprocket feed strips FS from the edges of the document. Each group of documents for a particular mailpiece includes at least control document CD. On control documents CD strips FS are marked with code BC which is read by scanner 14 before strips FS are removed. In simpler systems code BC can be a xe2x80x9cdash codexe2x80x9d of the type known for use in directly controlling inserter systems. In newer, more complex systems code BC can be a conventional bar code which serves as a pointer to a mailpiece record which record contains information for controlling the inserter; as will be more fully described below. In other known inserter systems, a cut sheet document feeder can be used in place of burster/feeder 12 and documents can be in cut sheet form.
Control document CD, and any additional associated pages P are fed from burster feeder 12 to accumulator 16 where documents for each mailpiece are formed into separate accumulations A and folded.
Accumulation A is then fed to insert stations 20A and 20B where preprinted inserts I are added to form accumulations A1 and A2. Those skilled in the art will of course recognize that the number of such insert stations used will vary from application to application.
Accumulation A2 is then fed to insert station 22 where it is inserted into an envelope and sealed to form mailpiece MP.
Mailpiece NP is then fed to address printer 24 which prints address AD on the outside of the envelope. Depending on the size of the print field of printer 24, printer 24 also can be used to print other information such as a variable return address (or other text message) RA, logo L, and postal barcode PBC on the envelope. (Those skilled in the art will recognize that dash codes as described above typically cannot include sufficient information to define even address AD so that systems incorporating dash codes typically use window envelopes to provide addressing information.)
System 10 also includes outstacker 30 for diverting mailpieces when an error is detected.
As noted above, inserter systems wherein said code BC is a barcode which is used as a pointer to a mailpiece record (i.e. an electronic record associated with a mailpiece to be assembled) are known. By incorporating data for controlling assembly of mailpieces in mailpiece records an essentially unlimited amount of data can be associated with each mailpiece. Thus addresses, return addresses, logos, and postal bar codes can all readily specified in addition to specification of the number of inserts to be added at each insert feeder, postage amounts, etc. Systems incorporating such mailpiece records are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,505; to: Axelrod et al.; for: Mail Preparation System; issued Jan. 24, 1989, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Embodiments of the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,505 are marketed by the assignee of the present application under the name xe2x80x9cDirect Connectionxe2x80x9d, described in The Direct Connection, version 1.30.
A typical MRDF record which is associated with a mailpiece to be processed is shown in Table 1 below.
In the record shown in Table 1, bytes 1-60 specify the addressee""s name; bytes 61-240 specify 3 lines of additional addressee information such as additional addressees, titles, etc.; bytes 241-344 specify the address; bytes 345-355 specify the Zip Code with either a two or four digit extension; bytes 356-360 specify a carrier route; bytes 361-362 identify the type of presorting which has been carried out for the mailing; bytes 363-372 specify the mailpiece ID, which increases or decreases by one, monotonically for each mailpiece; bytes 373-379 specify the job or mailing in process, and with the mailpiece ID uniquely identify the mailpiece; byte 380 flags a break in the mailing; bytes 381-382 specify an outsort bin; and byte 383 specifies whether or not the mailpiece is to be sealed. (Though not shown in FIG. 1, sealers are conventional in inserter systems.)
Other information which can be included in MRDF records can be information such as messages or return addresses or specification of the number of inserts to be added at each insert station. In general the information and format of MRDF records is limited only by the system capabilities and provides substantially unlimited flexibility in controlling mailpiece processing. In particular, incorporation of information which uniquely identifies each mailpiece permits regeneration of misprocessed mailpieces in the manner described below.
While systems such as those described above have proven highly successful, certain disadvantages remain. In particular modem inserter systems operate at extremely high processing rates which require that documents, inserts and envelopes all be moved and handled at high speeds with the result that a small percentage of documents will be misprocessed. Since in many applications it is critical that mailings be complete (e.g. mailing of bills or invoices by suppliers), methods must be provided to regenerate misprocessed mailpieces. Heretofore such methods have relied upon difficult and time consuming reprogramming of a data processing system to regenerate the documents for a misprocessed mailpiece so that the misprocessed mailpiece could be regenerated by the inserter system, or even more difficult and time consuming manual regeneration of misprocessed mailpieces.
Thus it is an object of the subject invention to provide a system, apparatus and method for the preparation and assembly of mailpieces with an improved capability for regeneration of misprocessed mailpieces.
In accordance with the subject invention the above object is achieved and the disadvantages of the prior art are over come by means of a novel method and system for regenerating mailpieces (or other groups of items), the method of the subject invention including: providing an apparatus for assembling the mailpieces, the assembling apparatus including a programmable controller programmed to control assembly of the mailpieces in accordance with coded information included on control documents; providing a data processing system for generating the control documents, each of the control documents corresponding to one of said mailpieces; providing a mechanism for executing an automatic print regeneration program; providing a common data store accessible by said automatic print regeneration program; operating the data processing system to generate said control documents; transporting the control documents to the apparatus for assembling; the programmable controller controlling the apparatus for assembling to assemble the mailpieces in accordance with the coded information; and upon detecting a misprocessed mailpiece writing a record to the common data store; the record identifying the misprocessed mailpiece; and then repetitively activating said automatic print regeneration program to: access the common data store; and upon detection of the record, causing said data processing system to generate a regenerated control document corresponding to the misprocessed mailpiece; and then transporting the regenerated control document to the assembling apparatus; and the programmable controller controlling the assembling apparatus to regenerate the misprocessed mailpiece in accordance with coded information on the regenerated control document.
(As used herein the term regenerate as applied to control documents means reprinting or otherwise recreating control documents, and as applied to mailpieces and the like means assembly of a substantially identical mailpiece, or other grouping of items, in accordance with the regenerated control documents.)
In accordance with one aspect of the invention misprocessed mailpieces are regenerated in sequence corresponding to the sequence in which the misprocessed mailpieces were originally processed.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the record is written to the common data store as a separate file, whereby contention between the automatic print regeneration program and the programmable controller for access to the file is eliminated.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the separate file is a zero byte file, a file name for said separate file being selected so as to identify the misprocessed mailpiece.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the programmable controller identifies the misprocessed mailpiece by testing a status record corresponding to the misprocessed mailpiece against predetermined filter parameters when processing of the misprocessed mailpiece is done.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the coded information is a pointer to a mailpiece record for determining assembly of the mailpiece.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the automatic print regeneration program pauses for a period which is long with respect to the processing time of the assembly apparatus after detection of said record.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the automatic print regeneration program reads a plurality of additional records identifying other misprocessed mailpieces from the common data store with the record, and causes the data processing system to regenerate control documents for the other misprocessed documents with the control document.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, a method for controlling an inserter system to regenerate misprocessed mailpieces includes the steps of: identifying the misprocessed mailpiece; writing a record identifying the misprocessed mailpiece to a common data store accessible by a data processing system; inputting the record to the data processing system; said data processing system regenerating a control document associated with the misprocessed mailpiece in accordance with the record, the control document specifying assembly of the misprocessed mailpiece; and then inputting the regenerated control document to the inserter system; the inserter system assembling another mailpiece substantially in accordance with specifications for the misprocessed mailpiece on the regenerated control document.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention identification the misprocessed mailpiece is carried out by testing a status record corresponding to the misprocessed mailpiece against predetermined filter parameters when processing of the misprocessed mailpiece is done.
In accordance with still yet another aspect of the invention a system for assembling mailpieces and regenerating misprocessed mailpieces comprises: an inserter system; a controller for controlling the inserter system to assemble the mailpieces in accordance with information included on control documents; apparatus for detecting a misprocessed mailpiece; apparatus responsive to the detecting apparatus for writing a record identifying the misprocessed mailpiece to a common data store, whereby a control document corresponding to the misprocessed mailpiece can be regenerated in accordance with the record by control document generating apparatus having access to the common data store; and wherein the system processes the regenerated control documents to regenerate the misprocessed mailpiece.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the detecting means and the writing means are comprised in the controller.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the control documents specify the mailpieces by use of pointers to corresponding mailpiece records for determining assembly of the mailpieces.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention the system further comprises a data processing system responsive to the record to regenerate a control document corresponding to the misprocessed document.